Violent storms to keep pulsing through south-central US through midweek
More lives and property are at risk as the severe weather onslaught continues across the south-central United States before the dangers transition and shift eastward on Thursday.
As AccuWeather has been warning about since last week, it has been and will continue to be a dangerous couple of days across the nation's Heartland with violent storms to the south and flooding rainfall to the north.
The severe weather conditions across the region have been building since Sunday. Nearly two dozen preliminary tornadoes were reported from Texas to Nebraska, where areas were under severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings issued by the National Weather Service (NWS).
A heavy amount of tornado activity impacted Kansas, and in Dodge City on Sunday, a resident captured stunning video of a tornado touching down in a field where cows continued to graze in the foreground.
A tornado touched down near Dodge City, Kansas, on May 5. There were no damage or injuries since the tornado passed through a rural area.
Severe thunderstorms on Tuesday focused mostly on western Texas Tuesday afternoon and evening before moving eastward across southern Kansas and Oklahoma during Tuesday night.
Over a dozen tornadoes were reported on Tuesday, mainly across the northern Texas Panhandle. The National Weather Service in Amarillo, Texas, will conduct storm surveys on Wednesday to determine the actual number of confirmed tornadoes as well as their damage rating.
The threat for tornadoes continued during the overnight hours Tuesday as a large tornado touched down from Hobart to Rocky, Oklahoma. Damage has been reported in the town of Rocky.
In addition, flooding rainfall occurred across parts of south-central Kansas as well as in southeastern Texas, around Houston. Between 2 and 10 inches of rain fell across these areas on Tuesday. This prompted flash flood emergencies in some communities due to rapidly rising floodwaters.
Similar to Tuesday, all modes of severe weather are possible, including strong tornadoes into Wednesday night.
"The severe weather threat has shifted away from the wide-open spaces of the High Plains to the more heavily populated areas on the lower Plains and the Mississippi Valley," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.
Over a broad area from eastern Texas to central Missouri, severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, hail and isolated tornadoes will be intertwined with storms producing torrential downpours and flash flooding.
It will be vital for people throughout the areas at risk to stay aware of the rapidly changing weather conditions.
Download the free AccuWeather app to receive the latest severe weather alerts and know the exact timing of storms with exclusive AccuWeather MinuteCast®. The risk of flash flooding will increase with each round of thunderstorms that moves through the South Central states.
A push of drier air will end the severe weather risk across the central and southern Plains on Thursday, while pushing it farther east and into the lower Mississippi Valley.
Thursday's threat zone will stretch from near Ohio River to northeastern Texas.
While the risk of tornadoes will be lower this day, an isolated spin up or two cannot be ruled out.
The risk of flash flooding may become a greater threat over part of the South Central states into this weekend.
Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
